A Change of Scenery
by Hatsunation
Summary: After getting expelled, Peter is sent to stay with his aunt and cousin, Cupcake, to get a behaviour check(or get murdered by boredom). While continuously getting blown off by his cousin he discovers the way to get to know her is through her friends and this mysterious 'Jack Frost'. However, he may have gotten into something little more than a change of scenery.
1. Chapter 1

_I'm getting to all sorts of unusual fandoms nowadays. _

_But anyway, I just really fell in love with this movie after watching it a couple days ago. After some late nights reading fanfictions and familiarising myself with the lore I decided to take a shot at writing my own fic! _

_While the beginning is rather slow paced I want to create a build because, well, that's just how I imagined it. On an important note because it couldn't fit in the summary, the main character will die somewhere along the lines and become an immortal. Not a guardian but just a sprite. _

_We cool? We Jack Frost cool? Okay, wow, that was corny but you catch my drift!_

_Please enjoy and offer me any critiques you might have!_

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><p>Dear Ms. Prendergast:<p>

On September XX, Peter Prendergast engaged in the act of vandalising the school courtyard.

This offense is considered a serious breach of student conduct. I met with Peter regarding the reasons for consideration of disciplinary action. Peter was given an opportunity to explain his side of the situation. Peter denied responsibility for vandalization. As a result of my investigation, I determined that he was responsible for vandalising the school. Peter has committed prior offenses as well that are also being taken into account.

Due to the seriousness and repetition of this offense, I am recommending to the Superintendent that Peter be expelled permanently. It is also requested that Peter not join us the following year or after.

Prior to continuing this recommendation, you and your child are requested to attend a Manifestation Determination Meeting on XXXXXXXXX**. **The purpose of this meeting is to review the behavior and to determine if the behavior is related to a disability. This will inform you of your child's rights and any possible consideration to continue the educational process through other schools.

You may feel free to contact me upon receipt of this letter if you have any questions.

Respectfully yours,

XXXXXXX, Principal

….

Peter stared out the window as the car plowed down the road, leaving behind the long gone sparkling city. Mom was at the steering wheel with a blank look but he figured that she was still angry over the whole getting-expelled-during-the-first-week-of-school thing. That silly little thing.

In all honesty, Peter thought that the principal was over reacting. Rather, he liked to think that his 'vandalising' was a public service but that didn't matter. In a world ruled by adults he was just some dumb kid with problems.

Those were the exact words his mom used when she got that letter. Not that Peter exactly blamed her or anything for saying that but the words still further add insult to injury, she decided to make amends by whisking him away to beautifully boring suburbia.

'The city was a bad place for kids to grow up,' she said.

'Getting away to a quiet town would be good,' she said.

'You should see you little cousin in Burgess,' she said.

Without any sign of agreement or approval his mom made plans and packed his things to arrange that he stay with their extended family. For how long? Until she found a new school for Peter to go to, maybe. Or maybe until she could bear his company again.

Knowing that he should be trying to play it safe or at least get on Mom's good side, Peter couldn't help but ask, 'Are we there yet?'

'What does it look like?' Mom replied.

'Maybe…?' he answered slyly.

She let out a sigh, 'Not yet. But soon.'

'How soon?' he questioned.

'Not soon enough,' she grumbled, ending the conversation. To further accentuate this she turned on the radio to some unknown disco music.

Peter sunk down in his seat, pulling the collar of his jacket up to his ears in efforts to drown out the awful noise. Mom finally figured out how to combat his antics. This road trip was going to suck.

….

'Oh it's so great to see you!'

Peter watched his mom and aunt hug each other and talk in unnaturally high pitched voices safely inside the car. Oh how he hated those sorts of exchanges. He'd probably be more used to standing around awkwardly while relatives gushed over how much he'd grown if he saw them more often, but he hadn't seen his aunt since he was a little kid. Heck, the only reason he knew he had a little cousin was just because he overheard Mom talking about her over the phone.

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard his aunt say, 'Oh my, is that Peter in there? Come on out dear so I can get a better look at you!'

He grudgingly obliged and scooted out the car door to his waiting relative. He went through the motions of the customary hug and the weak smiles, along feigned guilt for being a difficult kid. Just your typical awkward family reunion.

Once that was over his aunt(or Aunty as she liked to be called) gasped, 'Oh! You've never seen Cupcake before, have you?'

Mom laughed, 'At the time, she wasn't born yet.'

Aunty shared in the joke before calling, 'Cupcake! Come meet your cousin Peter!'

With a name like Cupcake, Peter had been expecting a small little girl with pigtails and dimples. Instead he was greeted with the sight of a girl almost as tall as he was that managed to look like a tom boy despite wearing a tutu.

'This is your cousin from the city, Peter,' Aunty introduced, 'And Peter, this is Cupcake.'

Peter offered a half smile. Cupcake stared in return.

After a few awkward silent moments Peter attempted to make pleading eyes at his mother but she refused to make eye contact. Thankfully, Aunty came to the rescue.

She clapped her hands together, 'Oh I just know that you'll enjoy it here in Burgess! Cupcake can show you around too!'

'But I want to play with my friends,' Cupcake quickly objected.

Aunty tsked, 'We have a guest-'

'It's fine,' Peter said, 'I kind of like walking around by myself.'

'Must be a city thing,' Aunty smiled, 'Why don't you go ahead and grab your bags? I'll fix all of us some lunch.'

'Actually,' Mom objected, 'I won't be able to stay but it was lovely seeing you again.'

Of course Mom didn't bother to stay. She didn't want to be in suburbia any longer than she had to.

'Oh that's too bad. We should arrange for us to really get together sometime,' Aunty said.

'We should,' Mom agreed.

Aunty and Cupcake walked back into the house for lunch preparations while Mom headed back to the car. Peter followed after her as she popped open the trunk about to remove his suitcase.

'Please don't leave me here,' he begged.

'You know I'm going to,' she said, placing the bag on the ground.

'But I can't stay here! This place is completely boring and Cupcake hates me!' Peter exclaimed.

'She doesn't hate you. She's probably just shy,' Mom reasoned.

'But you can't deny this place isn't a big whopping stick in the mud,' Peter said, putting his hands on the suitcase. He placed it back in the trunk, 'You're sending me to my death here.'

Mom rolled her eyes and dragged the suitcase back out of the trunk, closing it as she did so, 'Stop being so overdramatic. You could use a little boring.'

'But you're killing me,' he sobbed theatrically.

'Maybe if you had gone into theater instead of art, you wouldn't have gotten expelled,' she climbed into the car and slammed the door shut.

'Sign me up for that then! Just don't leave me here,' Peter said, tugging on the door handle.

'Behave Peter. I'll call you when I do.'

The car peeled out of the driveway, down the road, and out of sight. Now officially stranded, Peter grabbed his suitcase and dragged it into the house.


	2. Chapter 2

_Thank you so much for the two follows and the loveliest review! It really made me pumped to put out this chapter as quickly as possible so I thank you for that^^_

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><p>Inside the teen was greeted with the site of Aunty bustling around the kitchen making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sitting at the table was Cupcake creating a crayon drawing of a gold unicorn. Peter couldn't help but ogle a little, given that a girl her size was significantly younger than he was.<p>

He cleared his throat, catching Aunty's attention from the near finished meal.

'Ah, there you are Peter! Why don't you go put your bag in your room while I'm finishing up lunch?,' she shifted her attention to her daughter, 'Would you show him the way Cupcake?'

Cupcake voiced a grumble but stood up from her drawing. Peter followed after her, lugging his suitcase after.

The duo went up a set of stairs to the second floor where they passed a couple doors. All were closed except one which offered a peek into an entirely pink room.

Feeling the need to make some form of conversation, Peter asked, 'Is that your room?'

'Yeah,' Cupcake answered.

'It's nice,' he said with a sheepish grin.

'Thanks,' she said without sincerity.

Peter let out a breath that rumbled in his throat. To think he was getting blown off by his ten year old cousin.

Cupcake stopped at the end of the hallway and motioned towards the only door. 'Here.' She walked off down the hall not lingering a moment longer than needed.

'Thanks,' he called after her, knowing he wouldn't get a reply.

The teen pushed open the door into a rather normal and basic room. There was a bed, night stand, lamp, closet, desk, and little else. A window looked out onto the street in front of the house which was currently void of any life, although he could hear yells and laughing coming from farther off.

Peter turned away from the view and plopped his suitcase on the bed. He didn't planning on unpacking everything right now, or anytime soon for that matter, but only the one essential item that wouldn't fare well in the confines of a hot traveling prison.

Sitting on top of the clothes of the now unzipped case was a cheap black drawstring backpack. Inside the bag, he pulled out a brown box with golden latches and a sketchbook. The chestnut haired boy ran his hand over the smooth surface before deciding to head back down to the kitchen. He'd have plenty of time to draw later considering the boredom he had in store for however long he'd have to endure.

The boy retreated back to the kitchen where Aunty was was now sitting at the table with a plate of PB&J with a glass of milk. Peter slid into his chair, unable to help but notice that his cousin was nowhere in sight.

Aunty seemed to notice this and explained, 'Cupcake's off playing with her friends. I thought I might take the opportunity to get to know you a little better.'

He couldn't help but stop mid bite of his sandwich. That didn't sound very good. Maybe she wanted to find out if he was some raving delinquent like his mom probably made him out to be. Should that be the case then he had to be thankful that Aunty didn't take Mom's word in stride.

'So tell me,' she said, 'What do you think of Burgess so far?'

'It's...' Boring? Suburban? Quite? Boring? 'Nice,' he lied.

'Oh really?' she asked, eyebrow raised, 'That's not the impression I got from you earlier.'

Peter felt his facade fall away. She saw…

'Well I just have to give this place a chance,' he said in attempts to redeem himself. Seeing his aunt remain unswayed, he quietly admitted, 'Yeah, it's kind of boring.'

His aunt smiled, 'There's no harm in telling the truth about your opinion. What, did you think you'd hurt my feelings?'

'Maybe,' he muttered,

'How thoughtful of you. But really, there's need,' she leaned forward and laced her fingers together, using them to prop up her head, 'Now another thing, what do you like to do for fun?'

'For fun?' he repeated, 'Painting, I guess.' Most adults usually didn't care what a teenager liked to do for fun. They only cared about what they weren't doing right and what they thought was important, like school, studying, and grades.

'Oh, you don't like to play?' she asked.

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. Kids his age didn't 'play'. Well, they did, but they just played sports or played truth or dare and other older kid stuff. It wasn't like teenagers ran around outside pretending to be knights in shining armor rescuing damsels in distress. Heck, they didn't even really do anything imaginative like little kids did or like what his aunt was trying to say.

'I'm too old for that kiddy stuff,' Peter said, unconsciously straightening his posture to seem more mature.

Aunty blinked, 'Ah, yes! Of course! I'm sorry but you have such a young face that I keep forgetting that you're older than Cupcake!'

'Uh, yeah. I get that a lot,' he said sheepishly. He stared down at his nearly eaten sandwich, half wondering if the reason behind it's flavor was for that very reason.

'One more question if I might,' Aunty began with a smile, 'What's your favourite flavor of icecream?'

…

Left to his own devices, Peter took to watching television with a bowl of pumpkin ice cream in hand. He flipped aimlessly through the thousands of shows, finding nothing of interest. Taking a break from the mind numbing experience of channel surfing, he ate a spoonful of orange ice cream and sighed contentedly.

Now he was prepared for whatever dumb show was he happened across.

'Expect endless clear, sunny skies this afternoon with a warm temperature of 60 degrees! Without a cloud in sight, you can leave umbrellas where they belong and enjoy this beautiful day!'

'A beautiful day, huh?' Peter said to the T.V., 'That sounds positively disgusting.'

The teen looked outside to see said weather but was instead greeted with cloudy gray skies that most definitely did not look sunshine and buttercups.

He snorted and took a bite of ice cream, 'Stupid weatherman got it wrong. Go look outside you dingus!'

'Peter.'

He turned around to see Aunty standing in the doorway to the living room holding and phone and a pink winter coat. 'Could you bring Cupcake her coat? It looks like it's going to snow and I don't want her to get sick.'

'Sure,' he answered, shoveling down the rest of his ice cream, 'Where is she?'

'At Jamie and Sophie's house- The red one down the street,' she said, 'I hate to ask but I have a phone call.'

'It's no problem,' he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Peter took the coat from her hand and headed for the front door. He was immediately stopped by his aunt yelling, 'You need to put on a coat too!'

'I'll only be five minutes,' he estimated despite not knowing how far his destination was. He slipped out the house before she could raise more concerns and headed down the street.

It was certainly a lot colder than 60 degrees. With all the wind blowing around it practically felt like Antarctica! Peter rubbed his free hand up and down one arm, cursing himself for not putting on a proper coat. His light wool jacket was not cutting it one bit.

Much to his dismay, fat snowflakes started floating down from the sky. The teen stomped his foot with frustration.

'Come on!' he yelled at the sky, 'I'm already freezing my butt off!'

In response the snow only fell harder, starting to stick to the ground.

He hunched up his shoulders and started to walk at a brisker pace. The brunette could hear the same laughter he heard through the window earlier getting closer. Once he delivered the coat, he'd just run all the way back home and out of the unforgiving cold.

A few more frigid feet and he finally could see a group of younger kids decked out in winter gear playing in the quickly accumulating snow. Peter was almost at a loss for where Cupcake could be amongst all the cheerful kids but quickly caught sight of his cousin's signature pink look He walked over stiffly, his limbs already starting to feel as though they'd frozen solid.

'C-Cupcake!' he yelled disrupting the kids playing. They all stopped and stared at while Cupcake walked forward.

'Yeah,' she asked, her previous smile already gone.

'Your m-mom wanted me t-to bring you your c-c-coat,' he shivered, thrusting forward the pink jacket.

'I'm already wearing one,' Cupcake answered.

The teen noticed she was wearing a near identical coat and mentally berated himself for not noticing. He retracted the clothing article back, 'R-right. Well h-have fun.'

Just as he was about to walk away one of the kids with nerdy glasses asked, 'Why aren't you wearing a coat?'

'It was s-s-supposed to be a b-beautiful day with a warm t-tempature of 60 degrees. B-but they lied!' he shuddered with the cold, 'T-they lied!'

The kids started laughing which Peter took as his cue to leave. First his cousin was blowing him off and now a bunch of little nippers thought he was a joke!

Peter shuffled his way back home through the ankle high snow. Oh yes, Burgess was going to be just charming. With it's freak weather and condescending kids, this was truly just the beginning of a utterly glorious experience.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you for the continued support with your reviews 13BlueBananas! They're really a driving force in my writing consistency :3_

_And thank you xXBlazeStromXx (uh, I feel so weird referring to you by your screen name XD) for the chapter suggestion! This was really good practice for me in the art of writing inner monologue without having a character talk to themselves or including _xir thought_. Not quite the super fluff I had first imagined but it's a thing._

_Thank you for the follows and I hope you continue to enjoy my story :)_

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><p>Numbness was all he knew and white was all he could see. Having been walking in a straight line for the past 30 minutes, Peter was sure that he would have run across his place of residence by now. Evidently not.<p>

The snow seemed like it was lightening up a little or maybe he was just becoming delusional from the cold. Regardless, the teen knew he had to get home sometime in the next five minutes or he'd just end up as a popsicle in the middle of the road.

Then he saw it. The warm glow of lights coming from the house. It seemed as though it was something appearing out of a dream. With renewed vigor, he walked with broad strides up to the front door. In a single motion he shoved open the entryway.

Or at least attempted to.

The door rattled in its place but otherwise refused to budge. In response Peter rang the doorbell to try catching the attention of his aunt that was surely inside. A minute passed and he rang again. Then five and still no indication of life beyond the door. Had it been his own house, Peter would have been ringing like a maniac already. However, he was a guest so he had to accept the fact he was locked out.

Unless he decided to break in…

Teen shook the thought from his head. That had to be the dumbest idea he had in a long time and he wasn't about to act on it. As much as Peter would have liked to be inside instead of out in the freezing cold he had to abide certain rules of society. An important one being '_Thee shalt not breaketh into thy aunt's home._' However inconvenient it may beest.

It seemed Peter's only option would be to just go downtown and hang out in some stores until he figured Aunty would be available.

With this goal in mind he left the coat hooked on the front door and headed back down the street which unfortunately meant he'd have to pass those annoying kids… Ah, he'd just ignore them. It was stupid that he worrying so much over dealing with some kids that weren't even ten! If anything he should just be able to assert himself by saying he was older than them. Least, that's what Peter remembered things worked out when he was their age. Maybe the new generation was different.

Lost in thought, Peter forgot about the freezing cold until he was brought back to reality by seeing said kids again. It seemed they were having a grand time pelting each other in the face with snowballs. It looked dangerous, painful, and _cold. _But it look a little bit fun… Nah, he was too old to be playing around with a bunch of younger kids. In the snow no less. Participating would just mean he was signing a contract with frostbite.

He shuffled on, trying to shrink further into the recesses of his barely warm coat. If only he had listened to Aunty-

_Fwap._

Peter tumbled over into the snow clutching his head. He looked around his surroundings, bewildered. What the heck had knocked him over?! The teen removed his hand from his head and saw the culprit perfectly preserved in his frozen skin.

Snow. Snowball. One of those nippers hit him with a snowball.

He shivered violently as he pulled himself to his feet, teeth chattering. With fists clenched at his sides he bellowed, 'WHO THREW THAT SNOWBALL?'

All the kids had stopped playing were staring at the teen covered head to toe with snow. They exchanged looks with each other, not saying a word. One kid with brown hair and eyes tried to stifle a giggle that was soon contagiously passed onto the others.

Peter narrowed his eyes and stalked forward, trying to look as menacing as possible despite the fact his legs were just about as flexible as icicles. 'Having a giggle there? Why don't you share just what exactly is so funny.'

The laughing quickly stopped but not entirely. The kids were trying to contain their chuckles but were betrayed by their lips trying to quiver into smiles.

'I see how it is,' he said, turning his back on the kids. He walked away a few paces, just able to hear their collective sigh of relief. With that he turned on his heel and shoved his blue tipped hands into the snow.

'1 V 1 ME IRL. I'LL WREK YOU.' Peter flung a snowball, not aiming at anyone in particular before scrounging for more ammo. A flurry of snowballs started flying through the air around him, prompting Peter to make a run for cover. He ducked behind a car parked in the street, flinging another wayward snowball.

The teen dusted the snow from his clothes and rubbed his numb hands together. Now he was a yell he pitched snowballs and continued doing so until late in the afternoon when it was time for the nippers to start heading home. Cupcake still wasn't talking to him but she seemed less aloof. That was worth the cold that he'd surely have to suffer through.


	4. Chapter 4

_Winter break ends tomorrow and it was not a very wintery break D: I'm feeling very gyped on the lack of snow. YOU HEAR ME JACK FROST? VEEEERY GYPED!_

_Now that that's out of my system here's another chapter because the last one was pretty short._

_Thank you for the continued support!_

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><p>Morning. A quick glance out the window insured that it was still indeed fall and not an absurdly early winter. Having somewhat recovered from the cold he had been suffering the past two days, Peter quickly got dressed and donned his favourite wool jacket and headed outside before he could be forced to sit down for an awkward family breakfast. Instead he took to the streets and explored what little there was to be found in Burgess for the next three days. In the end his initial suspicions were confirmed.<p>

The was positively nothing to do.

There were small little stores that looked quaint enough but didn't have anything of interest. There were streets that promised a block of something, anything, to kill time with but nothing. Already Peter was missing the city dearly but now he was only further inflaming his hatred for the small town.

With that the teen decided to avoid the wanna-be city for the time being and kick it back in suburbia. Even if it did mean running into those nippers time to time.

Currently Peter was sitting out on the porch steps with his sketchbook in his lap, looking around for inspiration. He twiddled his mechanical pencil, spun it around his fingers, wiggled it in circles, anything that might coax an idea from the graphite. Glancing up from the intimidating blank page, he watched his cousin playing with her friends that had migrated over to their house for a moment.

Whenever she was with her friends she was so… happy. Cupcake was definitely not like how she was at home, or around him for that matter. Peter couldn't help but feel a little miffed that she wouldn't even try to make conversation with him or even share a smile. How nice it would be to see her actually smile instead of seeing a vague shape of it from ten feet away.

With that thought a brief idea crossed his mind. Maybe he could draw Cupcake smiling? He shook the idea from his head. That'd be creepy to the max but maybe she's appreciate it? If only he could win his cousin over with a drawing, then he'd draw anything. Even if it meant drawing something complicated like a car or a horse.

The front door opened from behind and Peter heard his aunt yell, 'Who wants snacks?'

Immediately all the nippers gathered on the porch to enjoy pumpkin cookies and glasses of milk. A girl with a white knit hat sat next to him, continuing to chat with the others. Peter shrunk away from the activity and continued staring a hole into his paper. At this rate he'd be better off trying to draw some sort of mecha Bulbasaur with machine guns.

'Whatcha' drawing?'

Peter looked up the see the girl looking down at his paper.

'Nothing,' he shrugged.

'Then why are you drawing?' she asked, taking bite out of a cookie.

'I'm not drawing because I've got nothing to draw,' he answered.

She became quite, convincing Peter that she had decided the conversation was over until she said, 'Could you draw me a bike then?'

'Uh, sure.' Within minutes the teen procured a sketch of a bike. Considering he'd never drawn a bike before it looked kind of lopsided but when he ripped out the drawing and handed it to the girl her eyes immediately lit up.

'Wow, this looks awesome!' she exclaimed.

The other kids crowded over on cue, looking over her shoulder.

'What's awesome?' asked a boy wearing a red beanie.

'This!' she said, holding up the drawing for them all to see, 'He drew me a bike!'

The kids oohed over the drawing, making Peter feel even more self conscious than before. He fiddled with his pencil eraser, only stopping when the kid with the nerdy glasses leaned and said, 'Can you draw me a robot?'

A few strokes later and a drawing of a robot was in his hands. With that a flurry of drawing request come flooding forth. A balloon! A fairy! A train! A tree! The drawings were handed out minutes after they were asked, bring forth more cheers and inquiries. As though the requests couldn't get anymore elaborate than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peter heard very quietly:

'Jack Frost.'

The teen looked up see the kid with brown hair and eyes looking at him seriously.

'Could you draw Jack Frost?' he repeated.

'You mean that creeper from The Santa Clause 3?' Peter asked.

'What?' the boy questioned, confused, 'No! He's a fake. Draw the real Jack Frost.'

The kids were all staring at him expectantly now like he'd just whip out this Jack Frost they all seemed to know.

'Uh… I don't really know what he looks like,' Peter said sheepishly, 'Could you describe him to me?'

'He's got white hair,' said one kid.

'And blue eyes,' said another that looked a lot like the previous kid.

'He has a blue hoodie too,' said the kid with glasses.

At this point Peter noticed they seemed to be all staring at the space in front of them like they were seeing this 'Jack Frost' right before their eyes. Maybe they all had the same imaginary friend?

'And he wears brown pants with no shoes,' said the girl with the knit hat.

'Don't forget his staff,' Cupcake added, 'It curves at the top like one of those things shepherds have.'

'Got all that?' asked the brown haired boy.

'Uh, yeah, I think so,' Peter said, already sketching out the shape.

Considering the pretty vague description he received, he'd have to end up inventing a bunch of details which would either be kind of similar or look nothing like this guy the nippers were talking about. To further add to the pressure, the kids were leaning over him and watching his pencil move across the page like a bunch of hawks watching soon to be roadkill. He sneaked a look at their faces and saw they gave no indication on whether he drawing him properly or not.

Time to get creative.

Putting the image of the creepy Jack Frost from his mind, Peter started consider. What did he think Jack Frost looked like?

Frosty, for starters. Maybe he'd have frost on his clothes. Possibly his staff. His hair could look kind of frosty like the patterns cracked ice made so a little spiky. Since Jack Frost was obviously a nature kind of guy, he must spend a lot of time outside making it snow so his pants were probably kind of ragged. But what would his face look like…

Looking around at the kids, Peter decided that Jack Frost couldn't be some older guy like the creepy Jack Frost from that dang movie he kept going back to. He was probably some mischievous teen that liked to give out Snow Days like Christmas presents.

Peter added a few finishing touches and held up the sketchbook to the kids surrounding him. 'What do you think?'

They stared at the drawing, their eyes darting forward to that same spot before them and back to the drawing.

'Uh… Not quite,' glasses kid finally answered.

'But you tried,' said white hat girl, giving a smile, 'That's what counts!'

The teen slammed his face against his sketchbook. 'I'm a failure,' he muttered, voice muffled.

'You don't believe in him so you can't see him to draw him so it's okay,' the kid with the brushed back hair tried to explain.

'I guess,' Peter agreed, realizing that kid had a point. How was he supposed to be able to draw their imaginary friend in their likeness anyway? He couldn't see them anyway. If he was able to, he'd be sure to get carted off to some psychologist for hallucinating.

'What's your name?' asked the kid with brown hair.

'Peter,' he answered. One awkward moment later he quickly added, 'What's you guys's names?' He was so used to calling them nippers that he forgot they had individual names.

'My name is Jamie,' he said with a smile.

'I'm Pippa,' the girl with the white hat answered.

'My name's Claude/Caleb,' the twins said over each other, quickly getting in an argument over who interrupted who.

'And I'm Monty,' the kid with with glasses said shyly.

Cupcake offered a small smile instead of her name considering it didn't need to be said.

Peter couldn't help but smile a huge dorky smile in return, 'It's nice to meet you guys.'


	5. Chapter 5

_In response to my previous author note, it snowed! Looks like whining helps sometimes :D_

_Thank you so much for all the great reviews! They always make me smile when I read them even if I'm initially scared to read them at first._

_And onto this chapter! Kinda fluffy and I didn't foresee it taking two chapters to write it buuut yeah, writing works out that way sometimes._

_Please enjoy~_

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><p>The next week marked the beginning of October. Being so, anyone without a high school diploma had to go to school. Well, excluding Peter. How fortunate was he that he didn't have to go to school. Instead he hung around the house killing brain cells watching dumb T.V. sitcoms and drawing. Without the xbox he had back in the city, the teen felt the familiar prickles of boredom once more.<p>

Once school was over and Cupcake was home getting ready to go out and play, Aunty took that as her queue to shoo Peter out after her. He would've gone out anyway but at least he could still play the part as the cool older kid that got forced to hangout with his younger cousin.

With it being fall and all, he and the younger kids mainly made leaf piles which they jumped in to make leaf angels due to the absence of snow. Once they decided that angels look pretty bad in leaves, they'd grab up armfuls of leave and throw them up in the air. Sometimes they'd run into people's yards asking for their leaves which no one really minded because they were just a bunch of kids. Until they saw Peter with them. Then they just thought he was crazy.

The arrival of the end of the week brought weekends which brought more time to do actual fun stuff. The teen was rather certain that they'd end up playing kickball considering that Caleb had mentioned it but was surprised instead to hear that the nippers wanted to head out to the woods nearby to show him something. Not knowing what to expect, he agreed and off they went.

Currently they were crunching through the dead brown leaves that lay underfoot while the canopy of brilliantly coloured orange, red, and yellow rustled in the brisk air above their heads. Peter pushed a low hanging branch from his path. 'How much farther?'

'Almost there,' said Jamie.

'Water!' screamed Sophie, who had joined them for the escapade. She ran as quickly as her four year old legs could manage to a pond glistening in a clearing of trees.

'She ruined the surprise,' groaned Claude.

'Surprise!' Pippa exclaimed weakly.

Now fully out in the clearing, Peter could clearly see the pond with clean sparkling water just frosted around the edges. It was clear enough that it looked as though it would have been safe to drink from if one really wanted to. The surface was clear of fallen leaves from the surrounding trees, leave it completely unblemished like a mirror.

'This is really cool,' Peter smiled, 'What is this place?'

'Water!' Sophie cheered.

'The Pond,' Cupcake answered, still remaining rather aloof towards Peter.

'Some people call it Overland Pond,' Monty added.

'Why? Is that the official name?' Peter asked.

'Not really,' Caleb said, his voice taking on a darker tone, 'They say some guy drowned in there and on full moons his ghost rises from the frozen waters and drags people in there with him... With his hook!'

'No one says that,' Pippa argued.

'They do because it's happened before,' Caleb refuted, 'You remember Penelope?'

'Penelope moved to Florida,' Monty piped in.

'That's just what they say because they want to cover up the story about The Overland Ghost!' Caleb said, wiggling his fingers to emphasize the spooky factor.

'Are you kidding me?' Claude said, facepalming, 'You really believe that stuff?'

'Nah, I just think the story's interesting,' he shrugged.

'Besides, Jack wouldn't let some evil Overland Ghost hurt people. He'd freeze the pond solid so it couldn't get out,' Jamie added.

From there the conversation switched over to the recurring topic of Jack Frost who, from Peter could gather, wasn't currently there. As much as Peter wished he could try holding a conversation with the nippers about it, there just didn't seem to be anything he could say. He wasn't about to go so far as to pretend he could see their imaginary friend just to relate, but it did kind of suck to get left out.

'So,' Peter interjected into their on going conversation to get the kids attention, 'What's Jack Frost like?'

'Cold,' Sophie giggled.

'That, and he's fun,' Monty offered.

'That's because he's the Guardian of Fun,' Jamie elaborated.

'Why's he the Guardian of Fun?' Peter questioned.

'Because that's his center,' Jamie explained.

'Yeah, but why does he have this fancy Guardian title?' Peter quizzed further.

'He works with a bunch of other Guardians so that's why. Like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause,' Pippa answered.

'Hm,' Peter mused, still not fully satisfied with their answers, 'So if I wanted to, I could just call up the other Guardians and tell them I'm going to start calling myself one now?'

'I doubt they'd show up,' Claude said with a shake of his head, 'They're too busy.'

'Not to mention that you have to guard something to be a Guardian,' Monty added.

'Oh yeah,' Peter challenged, 'Well I could be the Guardian of... Drawing!'

'More like the Guardian of Being Weird,' Cupcake snickered.

'It's something,' Peter shrugged.

'That's why you're weird. You keep talking like those pictures on the internet,' Claude said, unamused.

'Because I've got jokes,' Peter grinned, 'Even if they weren't mine in the first place.'

'Yeah,' Pippa laughed, 'Don't quit your day job.'

He smiled darkly, 'Now you listen here you little punks, the only day job I'll be quitting is the one that plots your doom!'

The teen scooped up an armful of leaves and flung them at the kids. In response they ran away laughing, trying to escape their 'doom'.

Peter zeroed in on a target and lurched forward with a roar. Caleb jumped out of arm's reach to circle around tree for it to act as a shield. As they circled, the boy's eyes darted around, searching for the perfectly opportunity to run. Once found, he turned tail and dashed for the other side of the clearing. The teen threw himself forward after him, hitting the ground in efforts to grab his ankle.

With Caleb too far to bother pursuing, Peter looked for a new victim. His eyes came to a rest on the small blonde who was standing there just bouncing with excitement.

He creeped forward with with smirk on his face, 'Oh Sophie...'

She let out a shriek and started toddling away, only to get scooped up at the armpits into the air.

'He's got Sophie!,' Jamie shouted

Peter turned to the source of the yelling-

_Twip._

A pinecone now rested beside his shoe.

He looked up to see the nippers in the surrounding trees. 'Give us Sophie!' Jamie demanded.

'She's my hostage,' Peter struggled to say as Sophie tried to wiggle her way out his arms, 'Unless you want to make a deal-'

'Fire!'

A flurry of pinecones assaulted the teen, causing him to let go of Sophie. She ran towards the trees and was helped up into the branches where she threw a pinecone for good measure.

'I had a hostage!' Peter yelled, raising his arms to guard against the projectile.

'We don't negotiate with terrorists,' Monty stated, straightening his glasses.


	6. Chapter 6

_OMG This took me forever to write! I was working on it all this while but the words jsut weren't flowing but I finished this chapter!_

_This story is so fluffy it's burning a smile into my face! I look scary when I smile so this is bad :P _

_Anyway, I love writing Pippa's dialogue ecause she's so sweet. She's becoming one of my favourite characters :D_

_Cupcake is really difficult but as I write it'll be like I'm growing closer to her too along with Peter!_

_Enough of my jibber jabber, I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

><p>Peter circled around the trees trying to figure out how to get to the nippers. The obvious move would be to climb the trees but... He could at least make an attempt.<p>

The teen walked purposely towards the plant that housed Monty and Pippa. Grabbing a branch firmly, he hoisted himself from the woodland floor- or attempted to. Instead he was just awkwardly jumping up in struggling pursuit of getting a boost. The nippers started to laugh, prompting Peter to abandon that approach in favour of something else.

With a moment of thought, the brunette was back in action. He stood under the branch with both hands still firmly gripping it, facing the tree. Planting one foot in one of the other, he started to scale the trunk until he could hook both legs around the branch.

Progress. That was progress, right? Now he only had to get himself on top of the branch and then he would have succeeded! The teen clambered with the branch to get into a position to twist himself upwards. In trying to do so, he kept swinging back and forth like-

'A sloth!' Sophie giggled, 'He looks like a sloth!'

'Do you need some help there?' Claude asked.

'I've got it,' Peter gasped, clawing at the wood for a decent grip, 'I think I've almost got-'

The teen swung himself on to the top of the branch, only to fly off from the momentum and fall face first onto the leaf littered floor.

'Is he okay?' Monty asked.

Pippa had already scurried down the tree and onto the scene. She kneeled next to the unmoving teen, shaking his back. 'Peter! Are you okay?'

The other kids crowded around, looking down at him.

'Is he dead?' Cupcake questioned.

'We have to check his pulse,' Monty answered, 'Flip him over.'

The kids worked together to roll the older boy over. He flopped onto his back like dead weight.

Monty gulped, 'Here goes nothing.'

The blonde moved in front of the other kids and placed two fingers against Peter's neck. The others held their breath in trepidation. A moment passed. Then two. Monty withdrew his hands and turned back to his peers, eyebrows furrowed.

'He's not breathing but his heart's still-'

'GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!'

Monty jerked backwards, being withheld by the back of his shirt. Peter sat up, grinning, if not panting a little from having held his breath so long.

'I have a hostage so I win,' he smiled mischievously.

'What?! That wasn't fair!' Jamie protested, tugging on Monty.

'All's fair in love and war,' Peter chided.

'I-' he tried to argue, but let out a relenting sign, 'I guess. But we're gonna beat you next time.'

'I look forward to when that day comes… 250 years in the future,' Peter taunted.

A fire ignited in Jamie's eyes, 'Well-'

'Hey, save the trash talking for next time,' Pippa said, 'We've still got time to do other things.'

'Then what should we start with?' Caleb asked.

'Can we start with letting go of my shirt?' Monty said.

Peter and Jamie relinquished their hold, saying a quick apology that was covered with laughter.

'Fun. Now what?' Claude said quickly.

'Well I was having fun climbing trees,' Pippa shrugged.

'Yeah, but Peter fell and broke his face,' Caleb reasoned.

Peter protested, 'I didn't break my face, can't you see that?'

'I don't see a difference,' Cupcake stated, bringing forth a flurry of snickers.

Peter pressed his mouth into a thin line, although the corners betrayed the smallest hint of a smile, 'Ha, ha, very funny. I want to learn how to climb a tree though.'

'Sure, we'll show you,' Pippa said, 'Right guys?'

Claude muttered, 'He's probably just gonna fa-'

Caleb swiftly elbowed his brother in the stomach, 'Yeah, we'll show you.'

They gathered around a sturdy looking oak tree that stood a good 50 feet above their top most branches seemed to disappear into the darkening sky. Despite the impending night, Pippa start her tree climbing lesson.

'First things first,' she said with a clap of her hands, 'You need to spot a foothold.'

'There's no low down branches though,' Peter commented.

'Well duh, that's too easy,' Claude retorted, 'You're going to have to use knots until you get to the branches.'

'Once you get to the branches it gets pretty easy from there,' Caleb finished.

'Okay...' Peter nodded, 'Where's a knot?'

Pippa giggled, 'Trees aren't two dimensional you know. You can circle around to look for one.'

'Oh, right.' He circled around the tree until finding a knot that protruded just enough to be climbable. Upon noticing it, Peter began to more easily spot more ascension points on the side of the tree. With a grimace, he started to clamber up slowly and steadily into the branches.

From some feet below, the teen could hear the kids cheering him on to climb higher. He felt his confidence swell only to have it forced back into check by losing his footing. Peter quickly scrambled his feet back to their previous resting place and looked down at the ground where the nippers fell silent, staring back up at him.

If he fell at this height he'd probably break a leg. The best way to avoid that fate would be to just keep on climbing. Now securely in the branches of the tree, the teen finally took a breath after realizing he had been holding it. Considering how out of breath he was, it seemed like he gone a long way but in reality there was a lot of tree left to climb. He looked down at the kids below and gave them a thumbs up.

From below, Peter could hear Sophie shout, 'I wanna climb too!'

She scurried up the tree like a monkey while Jamie was yelling after her, 'No, wait! Come back!'

Within seconds the blonde was on a branch perched just above Peter's with a beaming grin that made him feel pretty bad about his sucky climbing skills.

'Race you?' Sophie asked.

'Um...' Was all Peter could say before she swung herself higher up the tree.

Jamie's head popped up between the branches, looking around for a moment before he said, 'She went up higher.'

'Yeah,' he answered.

The boy groaned before ascending further up the tree yelling Sophie's name.

Deciding that the time for tree climbing was over, Peter moved to climb down the tree only to hear a yelp from below. He looked down to see Pippa waving her hand.

'You almost got my fingers!' she exclaimed.

'Sorry, I'm just trying to get down,' Peter said.

'This is a one way tree. The only way to go is up,' Pippa smiled.

'Can you hurry up? My foot's slipping,' Claude griped from further down.

'Yeah? Well your foot's in my face,' Caleb whined back.

'Quit your complaining!' Cupcake roared.

Pippa shrieked as she quickly hopped up onto the branch. Claude and Caleb barreled past, climbing over each other in attempts to escape from Cupcake's rage. Moment's later she lept on the branch with her face pulled back into a snarl. She looked over at Peter and Pippa and flashed a small smile before returning to chasing the twins up the tree.

'Come on, we're burning daylight!' Pippa urged.

'Wait,' a voice gasped. Monty clawed up through the canopy of leaves, gasping from exertion. He took a seat on the branch, leaning against the trunk to catch his breath. The two watched as the blonde's breathing became more regulated. After a moment he breathed, 'Okay,' and took off into the branches once more.

Pippa and Peter shared a look before cracking a smile.

'Right, well let's keep going,' Peter said, continuing the ascent upwards.

The duo continued up the tree, the branches becoming thinner and the sky becoming more visible around them as they did. The chatter of conversation became apparent as the two reached the level where all the nippers minus one were perched.

''Bout time you guys got here,' Caleb admonished, 'The sun's setting.'

'I wanna look before we start heading back,' Pippa said, slinging herself into a branch next to Jamie and Sophie.

Peter climbed onto a branch within the vicinity of Cupcake while Claude muttered, 'But it always looks the same.'

The teen opened his mouth to agree but fell silent. Stretching as far as the eye could see were strokes of bright yellow transitioning through colours to a brilliant violet painting the sky. The sun was a no longer a harsh disk of light but a soft pink glow dipping beneath the distant trees.

His intial awestruck reaction faded, returning him back to his surroundings.

'-not the same. You ever seen a sunset in the artic?' Jamie argued.

'No. Have you?' Caleb rebuttled.

'I saw one in a documentary,' Jamei explained.

'Penguins!' Sophie threw in for good measure.

'Guys, it's getting dark,' Monty said, taking the opportunity to end the debate.

'Yeah, let's go home,' Pippa said, beginning the descent down.

Everyone took the cue and climbed down the tree. Once safetly back on the crsip forrest floor they shared final goodbyes and went their seperate ways, leaving Cupcake and Peter to weave through the woods together.

Aside from the shuffling of leaves, the two made no sounds. Peter considered trying to make some form of conversation but decided he didn't really know what to talk about aside from the boring topic of the weather. With a sigh of resignition he almost didn't hear the low voice from beside him.

'Hm?' the teen questioned.

'What do you think of sunsets?' Cupcake repeated, 'Are they all the same?'

'Eh,' Peter said in thought, 'They kind of are but I think it depends on how you see it.'

'What do you mean?' Cupcake asked.

'Like,' Peter started, searhcing for a way to explain, 'The only sunsets I've seen before were in pictures or in the city and the buildings block them out so I couldn't really see anything. So seeing one from all the way up there made it a different sunset even though it's the same one as yesturday and tomorrow.'

She considered this for a moment, 'That makes sense.'

He shrugged lightly, 'I try to.'

Silence fell again. The teen shoved his hands in his pockets to protect them from the frigid air, wiggling his fingers in the warm fleece to regain warmth.

'You should draw one,' Cupcake suggested absently.

'A sunset?' Peter clarified, 'I could but that'd be kinda hard. It'd be easier to paint one.'

'Then you should paint one,' Cupcake said.

'Sure,' he agreed, 'And I'll give it to you.'

Cupcake looked up and smiled, 'Thanks.'


	7. Chapter 7

_Thank you so very much for all the reviews, favourites, and follows. Really, I can't thank you enough. They leave the stupidest smile on my face :D_

_On another note, yay me for writing 1000+ words on shopping. I never thought I could do it but damn, I did._

_Anyways, whoo! Next chapter! _

* * *

><p>Apple.<p>

All that could be seen in the blank expanse of space was a single red apple.

Although unsaid, Peter knew he had two choices. Cut the apple or wait. Maybe it'd ripen or maybe it'd rot. Or he could cut it now and let neither happen. Supposing that he did cut the apple, what would happen to it? Would he at least get to enjoy its taste or just watch the fruit brown away until it turned into a shriveled husk of what it used to be?

The apple began to blur in his vision, leaving him in total darkness with only red dancing in his eye lids.

…

Peter surfaced from his mess of blankets, squinting blearily at the pale light that shined through the slit in the curtains. It felt much too early to be awake. The teen started to fumble for his phone to check the time when he heard knocking on the bedroom door.

That explained why he was awake.

After untangling his legs from the comforter, Peter staggered out of bed and dragged open the door.

'Hm?' He mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

'You almost got away with it.'

'What?' Peter asked, fighting off the fog of sleep from his head.

'School. You thought you could get away with not going to school?' Aunty clarified, looking smug as she did.

'Well… Maybe?' he offered a small grin.

She shook her head, 'I don't think so. Get dressed, I'm buying you school supplies.'

'I don't need anything though,' he protested as she began to walk down the hallway.

'I'll be the judge of that,' Aunty called over her shoulder disappearing down the stairs.

Peter stared after her for a moment before sighing with defeat. He shrugged on some clothes and grabbed his trusty wool coat before heading downstairs to the kitchen. There he found his aunt checking her purse for essentials necessary for the trip. The teen filched a pancake from a stack on a counter, taking a bite of the buttery goodness.

Aunty raised an eyebrow, 'You can sit at the table.'

'Good to know,' he said, shoving the rest of the pancake in his mouth.

Her mouth slated into a thin line, 'Surely your mother taught you better than that.'

Peter grabbed another pancake and gobbled it down, 'I surely believe she did.'

She tsked with annoyance, but an amused smile tugged at her lips, 'Just get tidied up a bit and we'll get going.'

'I could do that in the car,' Peter replied.

'I don't think so. Teeth?' His aunt countered.

He shrugged, 'I brushed them.'

'Yesterday?' Aunty questioned.

'Possibly...' he answered vaguely.

She sighed, 'Go brush your teeth. The tooth fairy doesn't reward unhygienic kids.'

'I'm not a kid,' Peter grumbled, 'And there's no such thing as the tooth fairy.'

'Maybe so, but you're still supposed to brush your teeth at least once a day to keep the cavities away. The tooth fairy story should have taught you that much,' Aunty said.

'It did, but then she stopped coming so I stopped caring,' Peter rebuttled.

'You'll start caring when you get gingivitis,' Aunty said with finality. She checked her watch and frowned with disapproval, 'Congratulations, you procrastinated for ten minutes. Now go brush your teeth so we can get going.'

'Ah, fine,' he grudgingly agreed, trudging upstairs.

…...

One teeth brushing and a car drive later, Peter was standing in the midst of a sea of people rushing around the shopping mall. Being that Halloween was only two weeks away, the place was decorated with an array of corny decorations that consisted of Jack-o-lanterns, bats, spiders, and little else. Despite the mall staff's lack of creativity, he still appreciated the effort to create some sort of spooky atmosphere.

'Halloween person?' Aunty asked, seeing Peter staring down the glittery paper bats.

'You could say that,' he answered.

'Maybe I'll buy you a pumpkin sweater,' she mused.

'Please don't,' Peter said, turning away from the cheesy decor.

Aunty laughed, 'Only because you said please.'

She stepped into an office supplies store and started browsing over notebooks and other boring things. After Aunty tried buy several different notebooks that Peter refused to let her spend money on, she eventually settled on only buying the most basic of school materials.

On the way to check out she stopped, much to Peter's dismay, to view another display of merchandise.

'Do you need a sketchbook?' Aunty asked, 'This one's only five fifty.'

'That's tracing paper, Peter said, 'I could use some watercolor paper.'

'How about this?' She held up a spiral notepad.

'That's sketch paper. You know what, I'll live without it,' Peter said, dismissing the conversation.

'Oh, I don't think so Mr. Peter Prendergast,' Aunty said with an authoritative tone, 'I've heard about your antics from your mother and I know it'd be just like you to go around painting the walls!'

Peter winced. She had him there. 'Think of it as a beautification project-'

'No,' she said sternly, 'I'm going to buy you that paper. I brought you on a shopping trip to shop with you, not for you to shuffle around after me like a zombie. Now I just need to check these things out and find an art store...'

Aunty walked up to one of the empty checkout lanes to ring up her items, Peter in tow.

'I saw a place when we first came in,' he said offhandedly.

'Why didn't you say anything?' she asked with disbelief.

He shrugged, 'Didn't want to be a bother.'

Aunty opened her mouth to berate him but decided against it, 'We already had this conversation. Just know that you can ask to go anywhere you need to.'

'Okay, okay,' he said, 'I solemnly swear to do so.'

'Good,' she said with a suppressed smile.

Hoisting the bagged items, Aunty paid the cashier and headed to the art store under Peter's guide. Once there, the teen navigated the aisles like it was second nature and grabbed a sketchbook without so much as a glance.

Aunty eyed the sketchbook in his hands and then the price display on the shelf, 'Thirty four dollars?! That's absurd!'

'I'm a pretentious artist with pretentious needs,' Peter snorted.

Her mouth pressed into an unsatisfied line, and motioned to a sketchbook a little ways from it 'Why not this one? It's seven fifty.'

'I'm fine,' he said with a shake of his head.

'Well what's wrong with it?' Aunty asked.

'It's...' Peter tried searching for an answer, 'Not as high quality. The pigment will probably bleed through.'

'It says it's quality approved by the Art and Materials Institute,' she countered, pointing to an official looking insignia on the cover.

With nothing left to argue with, Peter resorted to pouting, 'But I don't want that sketchbook.'

'It's practically the same thing. That one just has a hard cover and a bigger price tag,' she debated, 'And look, this one is made from organic materials!'

'I-,' he gritted his teeth, 'I hate that sketchbook.'

'I'm sure you do,' she said, 'And now you can buy four for the price of one!'

Peter groaned dramatically, 'Mom was right, you do like pushing people around.'

Aunty raised an eyebrow, 'She said that about me? I'm glad she didn't forget.'

With that she placed the sketchbooks in Peter's hands and mosied over to the cash registers. Once checkout was done with they walked back through to mall to find an exit. As they walked past stores filled with tacky displays, Peter paled upon seeing a bright orange sweater with a Jack-o-lantern's face on it. His hopes that his aunt wouldn't see it were crushed when she said, 'I'm going to check out this store really quick. You can stay here if you want.'

He called after her retreating form, 'Do NOT buy anything remotely pumpkin related.'

She only waved over her shoulder in reply.

Not having much to do, Peter sat down on one of the cushy benches and observe the people walking into the nearby stores. A couple walked into a jewelry store while a group of teenagers obnoxiously paraded into one of those weird novelty stores that sold ouija boards and Chucky dolls. He couldn't help but smile when he saw a little girl press her face to the window of a pet shop that displayed tanks of goldfish.

'Iwantoneiwantoneiwantone,' she yelled muffledly to her parents a little ways off.

'You already have a cat, Alice. You wouldn't want your fish to get eaten, would you?' her father said.

She stuck her face from the glass, 'No...'

'Then come along. We need to be getting home,' her mother said.

'Okay...' she said reluctantly. She gave the fishes one last sorrowful glance, 'WOAH!'

Peter's eyes widened. Right before his and that little girl's eyes the fish tanks froze solid, each rectangle container of water now it's own ice cube with fish frozen mid stroke.

'Alice...' the girl's father said impatiently.

'But the fish are frozen like fish sticks!' she protested.

'That's nice, now come here.' her mother insisted.

The girl pursed her lips but ran after her parents. Meanwhile Peter still staring at the tanks with disbelief. To further his shock, no one else seemed to notice the phenomenon.

'Sorry to have kept you waiting.'

The brunette jumped out of his skin, 'Aunty! You have to look at the fish tanks!'

'What?' she asked.

Peter grabbed her arm and pulled her over to the pet store, 'Look at them!'

She raised an inquisitive eyebrow, 'You know Peter, I would never taken you for the type to get riled up over fish. It seems I was wrong.'

'What?' Peter looked at the tanks to see the fish swimmingly along happily, not a trace of ice in sight.

'You know, I'll get you a fish. Maybe the companionship will do you some good,' Aunty said, already walking into the store.

Peter could only stare after her in confusion, his gaze flickering over to the oblivious fish, 'What?'


	8. Chapter 8

_So now I'm finally putting in the author note because I banged out this chapter before school._

_Note to self: While it feels worth, your teachers will not see eye to eye with you on that. Must decide if I prioritize their opinions or not..._

_Any who, sorry if there's a lot of typos near the end but I was in a rush._

_And der plert is kermin'! Here yee, here yee, there's plert developments aboot!_

* * *

><p>Peter stared down at the fish in his lap that happily blew bubbles in it's temporary plastic home. He poked the bag, watching the fish swim over to examine the intrusion in its home.<p>

Pulling back his finger, the fish swam closer. The teen poked the bag again, nudging the fish a little. They swam away hastily to the nearby opposite end of the bag.

'Do you have a name for them?' Aunty asked with a smile.

'Not really...' he said, still puzzled over the series of events that lead him to be the 'proud' owner of his very own gold fish.

'Maybe Cupcake could help you out with that,' she mused.

'Yeah,' he said absently, poking the other side of the bag.

The car came to a stop in front of the house, where Peter could hear the nippers playing in the street. He hopped out of the car, fish and sketchbooks in hand. As soon as his feet hit the concrete the kids swarmed around like he was some sort of celebrity.

'Are you gonna play with us?' Jamie asked.

'Yeah, I just have to take of,' Peter motioned to the fish, 'this.'

'You got a fish? What's their name?' Pippa questioned.

'No clue,' Peter said, 'I'll be out in a sec though. I wanna show you guys something.'

They chorused a series of okays as he moved as quickly as he could without giving the goldfish motion sickness. Once upstairs in his room he tossed the sketchbooks onto his bed and dumped the fish into the fish bowl that Aunty had left in his room. After a quick confirmation that the fish was still alive and doing fishy things, he snatched up a folder bulging with its contents and dashed outside.

''Kay, I'm back,' Peter yelled, folder held high over his head. He ran over to the congregation on the lawn holding the folder out for them to see.

'What are we looking at?' Monty asked.

Peter laughed darkly, 'You're about to find out.'

In a single fluid movement, he grabbed the papers inside the folder and tossed them into the air with a dramatic sweep of his arm. The papers exploded into the air, floating down in a manner akin to snowflakes onto the grass. While the younger kids seemed unimpressed, Peter had a smug smile of satisfaction as a paper floated onto his face.

Aunty called from the doorway to the house, 'Your mother was right. You would do better as an actor.'

'Aunty, you're killing the mood,' Peter grumbled, swatting the paper away.

'It think it was already dead,' Claude muttered as Aunty closed the door, laughing.

Jamie crouched down and examined the fallen papers, 'Are these supposed to be Jack?'

Almost immediately the nippers were all sifting through the scattered watercolour sketches, the pictures were met with immediate disapproval.

'They're close but they don't look quite right,' Pippa mused.

'What the heck is this?' Caleb asked, holding up a drawing of a creepy snowman.

'Oh,' Peter laughed, 'That one was for kicks.'

Cupcake's eyes lit up and she held up one of the paintings, 'It's him!'

They practically pounced on the picture, looking at it intensely.

'Compare it!' Monty exclaimed.

Cupcake held up the picture to her right for the others to easily see. Their eyes flickered between the drawing and the empty space.

'It's him!' Jamie repeated excitedly, 'This is so cool. Can I keep it?'

Before Peter could reply, Cupcake hugged the drawing to her chest, 'I saw it first so I should get to keep it.'

'Yeah, but Peter's your cousin so he can just whip one up for you whenever he wants,' Jamie argued.

'Well you could always take a picture,' Monty suggested.

'Would you even show up in a picture?' Pippa asked the invisible presence.

'Maybe he's like a vampire,' Caleb said.

After a silent moment Pippa pursed her lips, 'I wish I had a camera, I'd wanna try.'

Jamie's eyes lit up with realization and turned to Peter asking, 'Wait, can you see him?'

'Uh...' Peter trailed off. The nippers were looking at him excitedly, honestly hoping that he could see their imaginary friend. As much as he would have liked to say he could, they'd just be disappointed if they found out he was lying. Well, that is if they found out.

''Yeah, I can see him,' Peter lied with a cheeky grin. He gave a half hearted wave over to empty space they kept motioning to. 'Hi.'

'He's not even standing there,' Monty muttered.

'I knew that,' he said hastily, 'I was saying hi to the grass. It looked lonely.'

Unconvinced, Caleb challenged, 'Then where is he now?'

'Pft, he's there,' Peter said, pointing vaguely to the surrounding area.

'That's not even a direction!' Claude chided, 'That was everywhere.'

'Exactly...' Peter said ambiguously. Being met with only poker faces he threw up his hands in surrender, 'Okay, as much as I would like to get in on your mass hallucination I can't. He isn't there.'

'Mass hallucination…?' Monty wondered aloud.

'Jack _is_ there,' Jamie insisted, 'You just don't believe.'

'How can I believe in something I can't see? It's like believing in- No, I'm not gonna get into that,' Peter said, resetting his train of thought, 'Okay, well if "_Jack Frost"_ really exists then give me proof!

Without thinking Cupcake said, 'The day you went out to give me my coat.'

'What about it?' Peter interrogated.

'The snow that day was him,' she said, 'Like you said, the news said it'd be sunny out.'

'And then he pounded you in the face with a snowball,' snickered Caleb.

'Okay, but the weather people could have just been wrong,' Peter explained, 'And I didn't see who threw that snowball.'

'Well duh you didn't see who threw it,' Claude muttered.

'Have you ever heard of snow in October?' Pippa asked.

Peter shrugged, 'Well it's not entirely unheard of...'

Jamie threw up his hands in frustration, 'All you keep doing is explaining everything away even though there's proof right in front of your face! That's why grown ups can never have fun!'

The other kids were stunned silent by his outburst. Peter couldn't help but be surprised as well. Jamie was almost always a pretty happy kid.

'Hey,' Pippa whispered, 'How about we just go to the park?'

Jamie nodded and walked on, the others following suit. Knowing that he wouldn't be wanted, Peter stood back and watched them walk away. Cupcake looked back once, letting the drawing slip from her hands before she turned away once more.

Peter sighed, 'One point for my stupidity.'

He started to gather up the scattered pictures shifting around in the autumn breeze. The teen intentionally saved the 'true picture' for last, not wanting to accept that Cupcake had pretty much discarded him as well.

Peter stared at this drawing in thought. According to the nippers, this was Jack Frost. He was basically staring him right in the face yet he couldn't believe…

With a sigh he picked up the drawing, dropping it almost instantly.

'What the-!' Peter exclaimed, looking closer at the picture that for some reason had been cold to the touch.

The edges of the page twinkled in the light with the swirled patterns of frost.


	9. Chapter 9

_If only I did my homework as consistently as I wrote, then life would be great._

_But it'd being boring as nuts and not fun at all so I'm cool with life :D_

_Thank you so much for your continued support!_

* * *

><p>'If you come down with a cold you're not staying home,' Aunty said, 'You're not going to die and it'll serve you right.'<p>

Peter sunk down lower in the car seat, 'What if I get hypothermia?'

Aunty laughed without humor, 'If only you'd be so fortunate. And I still wouldn't let you stay home.'

He sat up to protest but buried back down into his coat, 'I guess you could say you're being… cold.'

She shook her head with disbelief, her eyes trained on the foggy road that lead to school.

Peter picked at a loose thread on his sleeve, thinking back to earlier events and how they could have transpired in a more desirable fashion. His initial plan of soaking his bed with water and leaving the window was a stroke of genius. Sleeping in the frigid air combined with the soon to be icy sheets would have surely gotten him sick. What he didn't count on was how uncomfortably cold it would be! After a short ten minutes of suffering, Peter resorted to sleeping on the floor with nothing but his ever faithful coat for warmth.

That was exactly how his aunt found him in the morning. After hearing the story behind it all… She was less than pleased.

Would he ever try a scheme like that again?

Of course. He just needed to plan and plot a little more…

'Bye Cupcake. Have a nice day at school!' Aunty said cheerfully.

The car door rolled shut without a word.

The two sat in silence for a brief moment before Aunty asked, 'Don't you have classes to attend?'

'We're not even at the high school yet,' Peter explained.

'It's right across the street. I'm not wasting my gas,' Aunty said.

'Fine.' Peter stepped out the car, backpack slung over his shoulder. 'Don't I get a good bye?'

'Bye. Don't go to the nurse for anything because I'm not-'

'I love you too,' Peter called over his shoulder, already crossing the street.

The school appeared from the dense fog like some sort of creepy castle from a stereotypical supernatural novel. Students crossed the grounds in a disorganized manner only to condense into the front doors like meat in a grinder. Without another simile, the teen entered the high school, preparing for whatever lay in store beyond it's prison like walls.

…

Trigonometry, English, American History, and whatever the heck science he was taking; it passed in a blur of awkwardly trying to communicate with teachers and avoiding getting noticed as the new kid by the students. The task, of course, proved to become impossible when gym came around.

As soon as he set foot through the door a voice yelled, 'Peter Prendergast!'

Peter froze mid step, his stare focused on a rapidly approaching girl walking briskly with a determined look in her eyes. She stopped in front of him, letting out a sigh.

'I finally got to talk to you!' she exclaimed, 'I saw that you're new so I thought I might introduce myself so you wouldn't be so shy.'

'Um...' Peter mumbled, unsure of how to respond.

She giggled and cocked her head to one side, 'My name's Rumi Amori.' Rumi held out her hand, a smile that reached her eyes on her face.

That explained a lot. The poofy black ponytail and her thick white glasses- of course she was an Asian that perfectly mirrored those anime girls.

'Hi,' Peter responded, shaking her hand, 'So… How exactly do you know me?'

'Oh!' Rumi brought her hands up to her face, 'You're in my English and History class. I wanted to say something to you both times after class but you kept disappearing on me so I asked Ms. Babin if she could share your schedule with me and sure enough we have gym and art together too!'

'Uh huh,' Peter said, feeling slightly creeped out. Sure, he should feel wheedled by that fact a girl was interested in his existence at all, but she just seemed _so_ _weird._ Unless it was just his poor communication skills trying to create a reason for him to avoid talking people, which was probably the case.

'Oh yeah, are you that one guy that's been going around playing with the little kids?' she asked.

'What?' he questioned, now engaged in the conversation, 'Why do you ask?'

Rumi shrugged, 'I was just wondering since I thought I recognized you from that.'

'Yeah, that was me,' Peter admitted, kicking the floor awkwardly.

'Aw! That's so sweet of you to play with your siblings and their friends!' she gushed, 'I wish I had siblings I could play with.'

'They're not my siblings,' he corrected.

'Oh,' Rumi retracted, 'Are you an only child then?'

Peter shook his head, 'No. I-'

The gym teacher blew her whistle loudly, signifying the start of class.

…...

School was over.

For the day. Such was the pleasure that was the five day school week that was five days too long. However, Peter was finally away from the throngs of students and the ever judging eyes of teachers. No matter what school someone went to some things would always be the same.

The teen crossed the road to the elementary school where Aunty was surely waiting with the car. Without a word he slid into the passenger seat of the car once spotted. The car took off, Aunty attempting to hold a conversation with Cupcake.

'-do anything interesting?' she asked.

'Not really,' Cupcake answered, staring out the window.

Aunty noticed this and remarked, 'Looks like rain. But sudden weather like this has a tendency to be snow around here.'

Peter noted in the reflection of the window that Cupcake's eyes darted over to him, as though to say _See? That's Jack Frost's doing._

'Does Burgess usually get a lot of snow during the fall?' Peter inquired.

'More than most,' Aunty answered, 'I'd say we have our own little weather system going on here since it's never predictable.'

His seat rattled against a kick from behind to further accentuate the point.

'I guess you could say Jack Frost hangs out around here a lot, huh,' Peter commented innocently.

Time in the car seemed to freeze with anticipation. Cupcake leaned forward in her seat, waiting to hear what Aunty would say. Despite Peter being a non believer, he couldn't but feel anxious on hearing what she'd have to say as well. Aunty was oblivious to all this and started playing with the radio.

'I'm sorry, who?' she asked.

'Jack Frost,' Peter repeated.

Aunty's face remained void of recognition.

'You know, spirit of winter, guardian of fun, thrower of snowballs?' he explained, 'Jack Frost nipping at your nose?'

'Well I don't know about all that, but I do recognize the song,' she said. Aunty seemed to finally register the matching look of intrigue in Cupcake and Peter's eyes. 'Why, is he the new Easter Bunny or something?'

'Or something,' Peter answered, 'You've really never heard of him?'

'Can't say I have. You know, I didn't take you for the type to believe in fairy tales Peter. Seems I'm wrong about a lot of things,' Aunty smiled.

'W-what?!' Peter sputtered, 'I don't believe in fairy tales! I was just curious!'

'Oh, okay. Whatever you say,' she laughed.

Peter crossed his arms and slumped down in his seat, glaring a hole into the floor. He most certainly did not believe in fairy tales. They were precisely tales meant for kids that needed something to look forward to as the year passed. As nice as it would be to be able to believe in Sandman or anyone else, they didn't exist. That was just the painful truth that all kids had to face-

'You do believe.'

Peter whipped his head around, looking through the slit between the slit and the side of the car. He could see Cupcake on the other side looking at him with wide brown eyes.

'I don't,' the teen hissed.

'But you do!' she whispered.

He snorted and looked away, keeping his gaze trained outside the window. From the reflection, Peter could judge that she had gave up and looked beyond the glass instead.

Switching his focus to outside, he could see that the clouds were definitely darker than they had been minutes ago. It looked as though it might make for a bad storm but if what Aunty said was true... If it actually snowed then he just might start taking this Jack Frost business seriously.

A flash of white appeared from the clouds, weaving through and disappearing just as quickly. Then-

'Oh, it looks like snow,' Aunty hummed, pulling into the driveway.

Peter's eyes widened. It was actually snowing? And the white flash! His eyes darted over to Cupcake who was looking back at him.

'Did you see that?' he asked.

She grinned, 'That was Jack!'


	10. Chapter 10

_I had actually had a dream about my fic. It was really weird so it may make an appearance in this story at one point o3o_

_One another note I decided I want to read The Guardians of Childhood books so I ran out in the snow(Thanks Jack!) to get them from the library. All they had was the one about Sandman which was disappointing because it's the fourth book. I'm just looking at the pictures so I don't get spoilers and damn, Pitch looks awesome! _

_I think I'm gonna draw him because the movie made him look SOO LAME. It's like the animators just gave up and died when they designed him._

_Anyway, thank you for the reviews, favourites, and follows! They really mean a lot to me^^_

* * *

><p><em>Step. Step. Step. Turn.<em>

_Step. Step. Step. Turn._

Peter paced his room once more before stopping to look out the window. The snow was coming down harder in large chunks. At this rate, it could spell for a snow day and he knew who to thank for that.

No. No he didn't. There was no Jack Frost and he most certainly wasn't go yelling out his window 'Thanks for the Snow Day!' Maybe he'd see a smiley face appear in the frost on the glass or something.

Peter banged his head against the window. No, he would see no such smiley face and certainly not see some guy flying around wearing a blue hoodie. If he did, well, that was just a whole new level of insanity the teen wasn't ready for. Besides, Peter hadn't technically seen anything. All he saw was a white flash in the sky. For all he knew, it could have been a UFO that Cupcake decided to say was Jack…

The teen slumped to the floor. He had to admit, he was sounding ridiculous to even to himself. Besides, who was to say that Jack Frost couldn't exist? What law of the universe stated as there couldn't be a teen that went around whipping up snow for fun? Furthermore, would it really hurt to believe? Sure, Peter might seem weird for chasing after fairy tales being the age he was, but the worst that could happen would be seeming like an idiot. But it would be nice to be able to believe in magic and those flights of fantasy he had left behind in his childhood. Best of all, he could share the experience with those stubborn little nippers.

Peter's cell phone buzzed on the side table next to the bed, prompting him to crawl over and snatch the phone from the surface. He leaned back against the wall and checked the caller, mugging a face of distaste. Peter hit accept anyway, held the phone up to his ear.

'What?'

'That's not a very nice way to answer the phone,' Mom scolded.

'It's called cutting to the chase,' he explained, 'Considering that you're obviously not calling just to check up on me.'

'What makes you say that?' she asked.

Peter's grip tightened on the phone, 'You're calling from the phone in Howl's room.'

She forced a laugh, 'You have that number saved in your phone?'

The teen remained silent, his annoyance practically audible.

'Oh alright, you got me. That doesn't change that I need an answer,' Mom said.

'I gave you answer,' he spat, 'It's just not the one you want.'

'Peter, you need to understand that it's for the better,' Mom said patiently, 'Your being-'

'Selfish? Inconsiderate? Ridiculous? Go ahead and pick a word, I've heard them all before,' Peter gritted his teeth, 'Oh, here's one: _murderer_. That one should fit _you_ just fine.'

'Peter!' she exclaimed, 'You-'

'_You!_ You're just trying to erase your guilt! You're just trying to destroy the evidence because _you_ don't like be reminded that _you_ screwed up and that you're a bad mother!' he yelled into the phone, 'If it wasn't for you Howl wouldn't have run out into the street and-'

His voice cracked, sobs wracking his chest.

'Peter, listen to me-'

His mother fell silent with the press of the 'end call' button.

Peter wiped his face in his sleeve to remove the traces of sniveling. Taking a long look at the phone, he cast it away under the bed. He took a deep breath and got up from the floor to lean against the dresser the fishbowl was perched.

'Do you think it's possible to burn a phone?' he asked the fish.

Naturally it said nothing in reply.

'How about I dump it in your bowl then,' he laughed, 'If you're going to give me the silent treatment.'

The fish blew bubbles, swimming along the bottom of the bowl.

Peter snorted, 'Oh alright, be that way. Just remember that whenever something very personal happens to you I'm not going to say anything either.'

'Peter?'

The teen whirled to towards the door that was now slightly ajar. Cupcake was poking her head in, watching with a confused expression.

'Hm?' Peter asked casually.

'Uh...' she trailed off, at a loss for where to begin. Her eyebrows turned up in question, 'Why's your face all puffy? Were you crying?'

'Me? Crying?,' Peter reiterated, 'Pft, I'm the epitome of not crying. I haven't cried in ten years.'

'Okay,' Cupcake giggled, 'Well, everyone wanted to know if you were gonna come out and play.'

'I don't _play_,' Peter scoffed, 'Playing is for little nippers like you. Kids my age hang out.'

Cupcake rocked on her heels, 'So you wanna hang out?'

He grinned, 'Sure.'

…...

'Alright!' Jamie cheered upon seeing the two cousins emerge from the woods and into the snow filled air of the pond clearing, 'We can have so much more fun now 'cause you finally believe!'

'What are you talking about?' Peter asked, pulling his green scarf up to his chin.

Jamie's enthusiasm crumbled. 'But I thought you believed...' he turned to Cupcake, 'Didn't you say he saw Jack?'

'He did!' she confirmed, 'I was-'

The two fell silent as they heard Peter's miserable attempts to hide his snickering.

'It's almost not fun messing with you guys,' he laughed, oblivious to Cupcake's intensifying glare, 'You're so easy to-'

_Fwump!_

Peter tumbled over into the snow, clumps of the frozen water dotting his face. He jumped to his feet, dusting snowflakes from his hair, 'What was that for?!'

'You shouldn't tease people,' Pippa scolded, tossing a snowball in her hand.

Peter crouched down, starting to pack snow together, 'Why I oughta-'

'Shouldn't we wait for Jack to get here?' Caleb asked.

'He said he'd be back in fifteen minutes and it's been twenty,' Claude complained.

'Maybe he got caught up making a snow storm somewhere?' Monty suggested.

'But he made it snow here so he could play with us,' Pippa reasoned, 'Maybe it's something else.'

'What if there's an emergency meeting at the North Pole?' Jamie offered.

'If that's the case,' Claude said, 'Then that mean there's something bad going so we should do our part and have a snowball fight.'

Monty wrinkled his nose, 'How does that make-'

_Thwap!_

His glasses flew off his face from the impact of the snow.

'Free for all!' Claude yelled, ducking behind a snowdrift.

On cue, the rest scattered behind various barricades for defense. From his position behind a tree, Peter started to craft his ammo, checking to see if there were any openings for attack. He saw Caleb peek out from behind a bush, only to get whaled on with snowballs before Peter could even aim.

The teen wondered how it was that the nippers were able to unleash a volley so quickly when he felt a chunk of snow hit the top of his head. He looked up to see Cupcake in the tree holding onto a branch. She waved her hand and let go of the branch with a snap, sending a pile of snow on top of him.

Peter clawed his way out the snow, shivering from the ice that had infiltrated the warm confines of his coat. Immediately he was met with snowball bombardment from all directions. The teen backed in the clearing with the arms raised to protect his face. The nippers came from their defensive positions to continued mercilessly pelting Peter with their projectiles.

'What happened to free for all?!' Peter yelled.

'It's almost not fun messing with you!' Pippa cheered.

He continued to back step until one foot submerged into the icy pond water. Peter gasped from the shock of the cold and staggered away from the frigid waters. With that, Peter dove for the snow covered ground and started flinging pathetic excuses for snowballs like mad, regardless of their shoddy quality. Having successfully drove his attackers back a few feet, he quickly formed a sphere to throw. Peter jumped to his feet only to get smacked in the back.

A devious grin stretched across his face. Snowball at the ready, Peter whirled towards the lake, 'Get ready for carnage!'

The snowball fell from his hand and plopped harmlessly onto the ground as Peter stood frozen. He stared out over the pond with wide eyes, unable to believe his eyes.

Floating above the pond, blue hoodie and all, was- There was no way. He couldn't be truly seeing this.

The white haired teen cast a mischievous smile and-

_Bwak!_

Peter got a face full of the perfect snowball.


	11. Chapter 11

_This was another one of those chapters that were difficult to write but once you get past them you unlock UNLIMITED CREATIVITY!_

_At least, until you run into another one of those chapters again._

_But I've been doing a lot of hiking and playing in the snow to get inspiration for this story so it's not like I've been 100% goofing off this whole time._

_Besides, I've never actually been in a full out snowball fight so writing such a scene is much more difficult for me than it should be :P_

_Anyway, I hope all the 'research' I've been doing proves to be useful!_

* * *

><p>'Is he dead?'<p>

'But it was just a snowball.'

'I'm not checking. He might grab me like last time.'

'I'm starting to think that Peter would die very easily.'

Peter opened his eyes, blinking the snowflakes from his eyelashes.

'I'm not dead,' he grumbled, sitting up from the snow covered ground, 'I'm just shocked is all.'

'Shocked about what?' Caleb asked.

'Oh, I dunno, just the entire existence of _this_,' Peter gestured dramatically at the white haired teen floating a foot above the ground before him.

'"This?"' Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

'But what's there to be so surprised about?' Jamie questioned, 'You already knew he was real.'

'Correction, I didn't know squat,' Peter clarified, 'I just kind of assumed...'

Claude groaned in frustration, 'Are we seriously going to go through this again? I just want to have a snowball fight!'

'Hey, you'd be surprised too if one day you suddenly found that there was some Thanksgiving turkey man running around!' Peter argued, 'It's basically the same as this.'

Pippa wrinkled up her nose, 'Except I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a Thanksgiving turkey person.'

Monty turned to Jack, 'Is there?'

Jack shrugged, 'I've never met them but I wouldn't be too surprised if they decided to stay low key.'

Cupcake laughed, 'Yeah, they'd be embarrassing.'

'But you guys get where I'm coming from, right?' Peter said.

The teen was met with a sea of poker faces.

'Well,' Caleb began, 'A turkey man is a lot weirder.'

'A turkey man is just weird,' Claude clarified.

'Uh, you have no sympathy,' Peter mourned.

'I can get where you're coming from,' Jamie said, 'Whenever I first believed… Well, I was the first one to so I didn't really expect to see him or anything. But Jack was there and it was awesome!'

'Yeah but you don't think people will think you're crazy for talking to some invisible flying guy?' Peter questioned.

'I have a name,' Jack muttered.

'I'm just trying to put things in perspective,' Peter explained, 'Well?'

'Not really,' Jamie answered, ''Cause I'm just a kid that can get away with having "imaginary friends." People will think _you're_ crazy.'

Peter narrowed his eyes and jabbed a finger at Jamie, 'You devious little twerp. You set me up!'

'I didn't do anything. It was- hey!' Jamie yelped as a snowball made contact with his shoulder.

'Attack!' Claude decreed, assaulting Peter with his icy projectile.

Peter quickly turned tail and ran away from his assailments, 'Come on! Why do you always have to gang up on me?!'

In response he received a barrage of snowballs that knocked him off his feet. The teen jumped to his feet, shaking the snow out his hair. 'What happened to free for all?' A snowball whizzed past his head. 'Team battles?' Another lodged in his chest. 'Something!'

The kids stopped for a moment of collective thought. In a wink, Pippa declared, 'Kids versus teens!'

Jack laughed, flying over to Peter, 'That's the only fair team there would be.'

'Because the two of us equal the five of them, right?' Peter asked, already preparing a snowball.

'Eh, something like that,' he responded, forming a snowball in his free hand.

Peter puzzled over his reply before he gritted his teeth in annoyance 'Oh come _on_! Do people really have nothing better to do than bag on me?'

Jack shrugged carefreely, 'It's the truth.'

'The truth hurts though,' Peter muttered bitterly.

'Fire! Pippa yelled, signaling for her fellow teammates based safely behind their fort wall to launch their ammo.

Jack dodged the volley easily enough while Peter went scrambling behind a tree for cover.

'When the heck did you guys make a fort?!' Peter shouted.

'While you two were chatting like old ladies!' Caleb yelled back, 'Fire!'

Another synchronized fusillade barraged the tree trunk. Jack landed on the snow behind it, already creating another snowball, 'What's the plan?'

'Why are you asking me? I suck at snowball fights,' Peter sulked.

'Okay… So you can run out as a distraction and-'

'No, no, no!' Peter hollered over Jack's snickers, 'I am _not _running out there so I can turn more into a popsicle than I already am!'

'Alright,' Jack surrendered, 'So what do you have in mind?'

….

Peter moved with the stealth of… hopefully something stealthy. If the nippers caught him then the plan would be foiled and he and Jack would lose. Yes, Peter may have resigned himself to the fact he was terrible at the whole throwing-snow-in-people's-faces thing, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. Especially considering he had _The_ Spirit of Winter on his side. Victory should be a piece of cake.

Finally ready to initiate the plan, Peter watched from his vantage point as Jack lured the nippers over the tree where he was hiding. With them only a few paces away, Peter grabbed the tree branch piled with snow and started to bend it upwards. Closer… The rugged branch began to groan in protest from the strain of such a maneuver, depositing a dusting of white on the kids maybe twenty feet beneath his perch.

It seemed none of them noticed. No- Cupcake looked up. It felt as though it happened in slow motion, her yelling out warning to the others and the satisfactory _snap_! as the branch was released, launching a barrage of snow below. Peter laughed smugly as the nippers were buried in the white. Maybe not deep enough to make them minorly stuck, but enough to make the teen feel content.

With the distraction in the play, the teen started to barrage the kids with snow, leaving them stumbling over each other in efforts to get back to their makeshift fort. In their retreat, Jack pegged Monty in the back of his head, causing him to fall over into a drift. Peter continued to assault the blonde with snowballs until he yelled, 'I surrender!'

The brunette let out a whoop of victory, 'Yeah! High five!'

Peter couldn't help but be half surprised that Jack flew over and returned the gesture. Despite the fact Jack's hand nipped at his already numb one, it was nice to not be left hanging after such a long time of not high fiving people. Such was the tragic case he was.

Claude groaned, 'We always lose because of you Monty!' He let out a yelp at a snowball filled with yellow and orange leaves exploded in his face.

'Well now you lost Peter style!' Peter yelled from up in the tree branches.

'With leaves?' Jamie asked, a confused expression on his face.

Peter flashed a confident smile, 'You betcha! It's my final smash!'

'That's the lamest move ever,' Caleb commented.

'We'll see about tha- Oh cripes.' The teen teetered precariously on the tree branch, grabbing onto a nearby one for balance. He forced a laugh, 'Lost my footing there for a sec.'

'Be careful,' Pippa cautioned.

Peter snorted, 'What's the worst that can happen? I fall?'

She opened her mouth to protest but was cut off by Cupcake yelling, 'Watch out!'

All it took was the weight of one foot on the branch to cause it break off from the trunk. In hindsight, Peter should have foresaw such an issue considering it was the same branch he had bent back earlier to launch snow of the unsuspecting nippers below. Even more so, considering it had specifically been described as 'groan[ing] in protest from the strain of such a maneuver.'

Regardless, the teen couldn't help but widen his eyes in shock as his body began to plummet downwards, a gasp escaping his lips. His hands reached out to grab onto a branch, grazing it with his fingertips but failing to get a firm grip. Peter continued to fall, everything seeming to slow. The rush of the wind against his back that permeated the thick fabric of his coat, the whipping of his hair against his face. He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the crushing impact.

And… nothing. The wind had died. The ground was there against his back. Where was the pain that was sure to follow suit?

Peter cracked open his eyes to see Jack staring down at him with a blank expression. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the winter spirit.

'"What's the worst that can happen? I fall?"' Jack mimicked in a high pitched voice.

'I do not sound like that,' Peter said defensively, jumping to his feet, 'I'm more sarcastic.'

He laughed dryly, 'My mistake.'

'You're just standing there joking when you could have been dead two seconds ago?' Caleb asked with disbelief.

'Some people use humor to deal with stressful situations,' Monty informed.

'That was awesome!' Jamie exclaimed, 'It was so cool how Jack caught you and then he froze the pond to land on! I wish that could happen to me.'

Peter laughed smugly, 'Yeah it was pretty awesome, right?'

'All you did was fall though,' Cupcake muttered.

Jamie skidded onto the pond, slipping across the ice to where Jack and Peter were standing in the center, 'Jack, can I have a turn?'

'Yeah, let him have a turn. I wanna see how awesome I looked,' Peter said.

Pippa sighed, 'You guys are going to kill yourselves.'

'Maybe another time,' Jack answered, much to their dismay, 'Look, it's getting dark.'

'Oh yeah,' Jamie said, 'Hey! Maybe it'll be cold enough to go ice skating tomorrow!'

Jack flashed a grin, 'It'll be cold enough so long as I'm around.'

Jamie continued to enthuse about the activities in store for tomorrow as the group began to bid goodbye and gravitate into their usual groups for walking their separate ways back to their homes. Claude, Caleb, and Monty taking to the left, Peter and Cupcake walking right while Jamie and Pippa accompanied by Jack headed straight through the trees.

Per usual, Peter and Cupcake's walk started in silence as though they were waiting to see who would break it first. Peter decided to be the one would and commented offhandedly, 'So, you aren't going to tell Aunty I almost died today, right?'

'No. I don't care enough,' she answered.

'Hey!' Peter exclaimed, 'You would care if you had to end up walking through the creepy dark woods all by yourself.'

She snorted, 'No I wouldn't. I'm not afraid.'

'Oh? That's pretty brave of you,' Peter said, 'I think this is positively terrifying.'

'You're just saying that. Only little kids are scared of the dark,' Cupcake stated.

'Aren't you a little kid?' Peter asked.

'No, because I'm not scared of the dark!' Cupcake argued.

Peter laughed, ''Course not! I'm just messing with you.' He tousled Cupcake's short hair that prompted an irritated grumble in return.

'If you do that again I'm telling Mom you almost died,' Cupcake threatened, a devious smile faintly visible.

'What's she going to even do about it though?' Peter questioned, 'Put me under house arrest?'

'Worse,' Cupcake corrected, 'She'll smother you with cookies and pumpkin sweaters.'

'Pumpkin...' Peter repeated in thought, 'How'd you hear about that?'

Cupcakes grin became more apparent, 'I may have seen one around the house…'

Now walking up the snowy sidewalk with their backs to the faraway woods, the front door to their house swung open to reveal Aunty bearing a smile, 'There you two are! Did you have fun?'

'Uh huh,' Cupcake murmured, heading inside.

'Yeah,' Peter answered, following after her only to be stopped by Aunty.

'You,' Aunty said, 'Need to shovel.' She handed the unwilling teen a wide metal shovel.

'But it's still snowing,' Peter tried to reason.

'If you let it pile up it'll be ice in the morning,' Aunty explained, 'Which means that you'll have to be up by four to scrape away all of it in time for school.'

'But I'll have to shovel in the morning anyway!' he argued.

'Yes,' Aunty agreed, 'But it won't be so bad if you do it now and salt too.'

Peter groaned loudly, trudging to the snow covered driveway, dragging the shovel behind him. Aunty only closed the door behind him, offering a wave from the window.

Grudgingly, Peter shoved the shovel under the snow and hurled it onto the lawn.

One scoop down. However many more to go.

Normally he wouldn't mind shoveling but it was snowing and Peter was _cold_. Naturally that was testament to the fact he dressed for fall weather when it was in fact a blistering winter in October. That is, if winters could be described as blistering. Why was it that the colder someone got the more they associated the feeling with being hot? Maybe it was kind of like hypothermia. The closer a person was to death the more they wanted to freeze by taking off their clothes.

Peter tossed another shovel full of snow in thought to be snapped out of it when the snow hit him back in the face. He brushed the white dusting from his eyes, his initial confused look fading when his eyes came to rest on Jack who was perfectly perched on his staff that somehow stayed upright.

A lazy smile was on his face as he commented innocently, 'Lovely weather.'

Peter drove the shovel into the snow, 'You would think so.'

Jack laughed, 'I do think so.' After receiving no reply he jumped down from the perch, taking the staff in his hand. 'What? You don't like winter?'

'No, winter is great,' Peter said, stabbing the snow once more with his shovel, 'What I don't like is the fact that it's ruining autumn!' With these words out, it open the gasket for the rant that Peter had brewing inside from since the first snowfall.

'Autumn is all about the harvest and maturing. You know, the last hurrah before everything dies for three months. But your snow puts the plants into a state of shock that makes them freak out and die before they're ready so they aren't prepared to come back to life in the spring! As a result we're stuck with ugly brown twigy things for foliage and everyone will die because it'll be so ugly!'

Jack stared at the teen who was currently trying to expel some form of rage on the fallen snow with his shovel.

'I'm pretty sure people aren't going to die from ugly plants...' Jack reasoned, 'Well, maybe you will but everyone else will be pretty okay.'

Peter stopped shoveling to address Jack fully, 'Everyone else will die from the rip in the atmosphere that'll be created by the surplus of greenhouse gases because of the lack of plants to purify it into oxygen. So, no. They will not be okay.'

'Autumn can't be that important if there isn't a spirit for it,' Jack explained with a shrug, 'So maybe the plants won't "freak out" like you say they will.'

Peter wrinkled up his nose, 'There should be. Or the spirit of summer should at least put a clamp on your willy frost activities.'

'She enjoys the Caribbean too much to be bothered,' he answered.

The brunette mumbled to himself, resuming the trying task of shoveling snow. From there, he decided to strike up a conversation about pretty much everything regarding the winter spirit. His origins, how he became what he was, and the whole Guardian thing. By the time Peter had finished shoveling, the topic was about historical events regarding ice and how it had been Jack's doing.

Just as Peter was about to head inside, a memory crossed his mind he thought to ask about before Jack zipped off to wherever he planned on spending the night.

'So those fish tanks at the mall were you, right?' Peter asked.

'What?' Jack questioned, 'What fish tanks?'

'The one's at the pet store,' Peter clarified, 'They all got frozen solid.'

Jack shook his head, 'I don't make it a habit to go around freezing fish.'

'Hm. Maybe someone dropped some liquid nitrogen in the filters or something then,' he shrugged.

Jack furrowed his eyebrows in thought, 'But why-' He stopped. A look briefly flashed across his face. Realization? Worry? Maybe fear?

'I have to go to the North Pole,' Jack said quickly, 'Tell Jamie I'm sorry I couldn't stick around.'

'Wait, what's going-!' Peter fell silent, realizing that the spirit had already flown out of earshot and disappeared into the snowing clouds.

'What the heck was that about?' Peter asked himself, turning back to the house. His gaze fell on the driveway that was now cloaked in an unblemished coat of fresh snow.

The teen threw the shovel on the ground in frustration, 'FUUUUUU-!'


	12. Chapter 12

_Sorry about the lack of updates but I have been working on this everyday! _

_Except... Well, I've only been writing a word or sentence a day... I'm trying, okay?_

_However I decided to just go ahead and upload the first part of the chapter I had written so far since it really has been a while._

_Please enjoy :D_

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><p>After a grungy early morning of snow shoveling, the usual weekday routine of going to school fell back into place. While once more Peter would have rather been anywhere else than the dreaded place, he was too tired to try to pull another stunt, much to Aunty's delight.<p>

'I should have you shovel for now on,' she mused while driving the two to school.

'Then I'll start scheming ways to get out of that,' Peter warned.

'Thanks for the heads up,' Aunty smiled.

Once 'safely' dropped off, the true torture began. It wasn't as though school was torturous in a physical way. No, _they_ were far too clever for that. _They_ tortured the students in a quiet, subtle way achieved only through the mind numbing boredom that was sure to scar its victim's brain. And just who was _they_? Peter would probably never know due to the intentional complexity of the school system. Therefore he was left trying to fend for his own creativity against the horrors of curriculum and common core.

However, it was easier to evade with the distraction of Rumi. She was friendly enough which lead him to wonder why she seemed to not have many friends, if any. Granted the girl was off putting in some way he couldn't place, Peter was thankful to have her there to listen to his aimless ramblings.

'I was thinking of naming him Fido because it sounds like a dog's name and it'd be kind of funny because when I call his name it'll sound like I'm calling a dog when it's actually a fish. But now that I think about it, no one really calls their fish or says their name so no one would get the joke...'

Peter looked up at Rumi who was listening with a smile. It didn't seem genuine. More like the kind someone would have when they encountered a crazy person and were just trying to act friendly enough that they wouldn't get axe murdered but not so friendly as to encourage them to stick around.

He slumped over his partially eaten lunch in anguish, 'You can leave if you want. I know my conversation skills suck so I won't force you to suffer.'

'No, it's fine!' Rumi exclaimed quickly, 'Really, I think you're interesting to listen to.'

'That's a first. I even think I'm pretty boring,' Peter snorted, 'So what's up with you?'

'You know, school,' Rumi said with a roll of her eyes,' Oh, but Halloween's coming up! I'm probably just going to hand out candy but I want to have a really cool costume. I just don't know where to start...'

'What piques your interest?' Peter asked, 'Vampires, tourists, hopefully not scantily clad characters...'

Rumi mused for a moment before clapping her hands together. 'I got it! I'll be a _kitsune_.'

'I'm going to pretend I know what you're talking about… Great idea!' Peter grinned.

'_Kitsune_ means fox. But I want to be a nine tailed fox because that's means I'm very old and wise,' Rumi explained.

Peter snickered, 'So along with needing a bunch of fur, you'll need old lady makeup?'

Her eyes widened in horror, 'No! That's disgusting!' Realizing he was joking, Rumi calmed down and cleared her throat. 'Well I need to make the tails since there aren't really any nice ones I can buy. Maybe the ears too… Do you know what sort of fabric I should use?'

'What makes you think I'd know a thing about fabric?' Peter questioned.

'Oh, sorry,' Rumi said, casting her eyes downward, 'I figured since you were artistic you would know about that sort of thing.'

Peter twirled his lunch around his fork, '... Don't buy fun fur because it'll just look tacky. Since you'd be buying local just test out the fur by running your fingers through it. If the fur comes loose really easily, don't buy it.'

Rumi waved her chopsticks in the air, 'So you do know fabric!'

'I don't know fabric. I just have a furry fetish,' he flashed a devious grin that disappeared after mere seconds, 'No, no. I can't even joke about that. It's too gross.'

Rumi breathed a sigh of relief, 'Thank goodness! I don't think I could have been friends with you if you did!'

Peter picked at his lunch some more, staring enviously at Rumi's _bento_ box. Granted in was predominantly rice, it was loaded with other yummy Asian goodies that made the school lunch look like toxic waste in comparison. Rumi looked up and noticed his hungry eye's but gave no sign of willingness to share.

'Oh!' she exclaimed, eyes lighting up with realization, 'Who were you talking to last night?'

'What?' Peter asked, confused.

'I was walking by your house last night and I saw you talking so I was kind of wondering who it was since no one was there,' Rumi elaborated.

'Oh, um,' Peter mumbled, searching for some sort of explanation for the event that didn't involve flying winter spirits, 'I was… talking to someone on my blue tooth.'

'You're pretty expressive for talking to someone who isn't actually there.' Rumi was smiling but the expression failed to reach her eyes. Unconvinced.

Peter muddled over more lies to tell. He could always just say he was talking to himself and watch as Rumi backed away slowly. Maybe fib and say he had a tendency to hallucinate? That just sounded even more crazy but not as crazy as outrightly telling the truth. Then again...

'I...' Peter let out a sigh of resignation, 'Okay I have to tell you something but you can't tell anyone.'

Rumi leaned in closer. 'What is it?'

Peter leaned over the table, hesitating at first and then finally whispering, 'I'm a very dramatic person.'

Rumi punched the brunette in the arm, 'Uh! I thought you were going to actually say something important!'

'I'm so hurt!' he wailed, 'You really don't think my traits are important? Why? Why is the world cruel?!' Peter slumped against the table, sobbing bitterly against the uncomforting surface.

'Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way!' Rumi apologized worriedly, 'I just meant...'

She fell silent as Peter's body began to shudder. Reaching out a tentative hand, Rumi poked his shoulder, prompting him to roll over and reveal a fit of giggles.

'Uh!' Rumi fumed, 'I thought something was actually wrong with you! No- I take that back. There is something wrong with you.'

With a lopsided grin, he tipped an invisible hat, 'Pleasure to be of service.'


End file.
